Stephen Rea

Born Oct. 31, 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Rea grew up in a Protestant blue collar home where his father was a bus driver and his mother the headmaster's secretary at Belfast High School, which he later attended. Though his desire to act lay distinctly outside his family - he was the only member so creatively inclined - Rea began to perform at an early age, starring as the Wolf in a school production of "Little Red Riding Hood" when he was four years old. When he was significantly older, Rea attended the Queen's University of Belfast, where he earned a degree in English, then trained at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin. While consistently performing onstage, he made an inauspicious f... Continue Bio >>